Over the years, the treatment of kitchen waste has changed. Garburators were considered to be an acceptable method of disposing with solid waste. These appliances use a lot of water, and add an unnecessary load to sewage systems. Further, they dispose of materials that could be used as compost or for anaerobic digestion. More current approaches focus on saving the solid waste. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,694,362 discloses a composting garbage disposal for under sink use in a kitchen which separates food waste items into liquid and solid components. The liquid components are directed to a standard sewer or septic system. The solid components are directed to a removable storage bin. The food waste items are separated by use of a motor driven auger member which is in close proximity to the inside wall of a screened cup so that the liquid exits the screened portion of the cup and the solid exits through an aperture in the floor of the cup. A microprocessor circuit senses the strain on the drive motor and if the strain becomes excessive, automatically reverses the direction of the shaft and auger thereby releasing excess food waste that is causing the excess strain. The solid waste is retained in an open storage bin, so odours are not contained. Further, vermin would be attracted to the waste because of the odours. Still further, if not emptied regularly, the solid waste could be contaminated with mold and other fungus, leading to the release of fungal spores into the ambient environment. It is not a closed system. The placement and design of the exit tube for the solid waste would be problematic as the auger would direct the solid waste down into the bottom of the cup resulting in plugging of the opening to the exit tube, which is of a much smaller diameter than is the bottom of the cup. The placement of the exit tube and the liquid waste tube is problematic as the liquid would preferentially exit through the exit tube for the solid waste.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,464,970 discloses an under-sink waste processing appliance which includes a waste separator which extracts liquid from organic waste and passes such extracted liquid to a residential drain line. The remaining solid, in the form of organic pulp, is dried in a dryer and deposited in a removable collection receptacle. The cutter, which may be an auger, cuts the organic waste before drying it. The cutter is transversely mounted in the waste separator. The pulp outlet and the liquid outlet are at opposite sides of the waste separator, hence the motive force of the cutter pushes the organic pulp to the pulp outlet, but there is no force to direct the liquid to the liquid outlet, hence the separation of the liquid from the solid would be very poor. Thus, this is a very inefficient system. No measures have been taken to seal the system from the ambient, hence odours could be released. Drying uses a lot of energy, and causes odours to be released. Further, the resultant dried waste must be rehydrated to be used as compost.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,954,739 discloses a garbage disposal apparatus includes a shredding device for shredding garbage put in through a drain opening of a sink and a connecting member, a transverse conveying device for conveying the garbage shredded by the shredding device in a transverse direction, a dehydrating device into which the shredded garbage conveyed through the transverse conveying device is introduced and that is for dehydrating the shredded garbage while conveying the shredded garbage upward, a drying device into which the shredded garbage discharged through the dehydrating device is supplied via a chute and that is for drying the shredded garbage while rotating, and a garbage receptacle disposed under the drying device so as to be able to be pulled out, and the shredded garbage dried and reduced in volume by the drying device drops from the rotating drying device and is collected in the garbage receptacle. Drying uses a lot of energy and causes odours to be released. Further, the resultant dried waste must be rehydrated to be used as compost. It is not a closed system, as it includes an exhaust fan and a removable receptacle, which appears to have no mechanism to isolate it from the ambient.
What is needed is a safe, easy to use waste separator for under sinks that reduces or eliminates odour release. It would be preferable if it was compact and allowed for a larger bin to be used. It would be more preferable if it was energy efficient. It would be still more preferable if it had few moving parts. It would be preferable if it reduces or eliminated accidental water escape. It would be also preferable if it was under control of a microprocessor. It would be preferable if it was a closed system when the sink plug was in place.